StoryEcho: A Narrative Mirroring Loop Generative Storytelling System for Picky-Eating Intervention

Abstract

Picky eating can limit children's dietary variety and create tension in family feeding routines. Existing food-related technologies often focus on mealtime intervention or standalone educational artifacts, offering limited support for connecting low-pressure narrative engagement with children's real-world food exploration over time. We present StoryEcho, a generative storytelling system centered on a narrative mirroring loop, in which personalized stories model sensory exploration through a persistent counterpart and children's subsequent food encounters are reflected back into narrative feedback and future story development. Informed by a formative study, we designed StoryEcho and evaluated it in a 14-day between-subjects field study with 26 families. Compared with food-personalized generative stories without the narrative mirroring loop, StoryEcho was associated with higher try level, approach, and intake, and lower resistance and caregiver pressure. These findings suggest that narrative mirroring can support children's low-pressure food exploration in family routines, while highlighting design tensions for future generative storytelling interventions.